(opens in new tab) title: Wish You Were Her author: Elle McNicoll publisher: Wednesday Books publication date: August 26, 2025 pages: 352 peppers: 2 (on this scale) warnings: vomit, overstimulation, meanness summary: Allegra, who’s an eighteen-year-old star plans to work at her father’s small-town bookstore for the summer to get out of the spotlight. Before…
“Why”…Wednesdays
346. Why Listen to Your Body
I’ve probably used the photo you see for a different post, but I assure you, this essay is not that essay. The day this writing goes live will be the day after my fifty-sixth birthday. I love birthdays, so I’m probably feeling pretty grand right now (unless I over-indulged on sugary foods, which is also…
345. Why Look at Your Feet
(opens in new tab) Anyone who’s met me IRL (as the kids say, or used to say, who can keep up? Anyway, it means In Real Life rather than online) will know that if I look at my feet most days, what I’ll see is something pink and sparkly like the shoe pictured above. I’m…
344. Why Glimmers
The word trigger (according to my Google search) to refer to activating an emotional trauma response was first used in the DSM in the 1980s. That meaning spread to common usage in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trigger warnings started to appear at the same time to help make sure that one’s students/ readers/ audience…
NetGalley Review of Well, Actually
(opens in new tab) title: Well, Actually author: Mazey Eddings publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: August 5, 2025 pages: 384 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: death of a family member (in past), divorce, alcohol summary: In a drunken fit, Eva Kitt, whose job it is to snark her way through video interviews of…
NetGalley Review of Steady Now
(opens in new tab) title: Steady Now author: Liberty Stowe publisher: Rupertbossier publication date: August 1, 2025 pages: 440 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: suicide (mentioned), parental neglect, child abandonment, and drug use (mentioned) summary: When Wren’s Mazarati breaks down in the middle-of-nowhere, Texas, she ends up stranded in a small town with Hud,…
NetGalley Review of Pucking Enemies
(opens in new tab) title: Pucking Enemies author: Katie Strong publisher: Kindle publication date: July 30, 2025 pages: not sure, on my Kindle app, it says 401 pages, but it didn’t feel nearly that long peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: alcohol abuse, vomit summary: Rylee is thrilled to be hired not only as the…
343. Why Name Your Whys
I have an advisee with whom I meet every week. At some point I noticed that we had roughly the same conversation every time she came to my office: Me: How are things going? Her: Not great. I have a paper that’s late and a test I’m not ready for and I wasted all of…
NetGalley Review of Give Me a Reason
(opens in new tab) title: Give Me a Reason author: Jayci Lee publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin publication date: July 29, 2025 pages: 352 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: one scene in a hospital, a fall leading to a concussion summary: This modern adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion follows Korean television star Anne after she quits her…
NetGalley Review of Road Trip with a Rogue
(opens in new tab) title: Road Trip with a Rogue author: Kate Bateman publisher: St. Martin’s Paperback publication date: July 29, 2025 pages: 336 peppers: 3 (on this scale) warnings: shootings, stabbings summary: Daisy has been hired to stop a couple from eloping in Gretna Green; unfortunately, they have a head start and she gets…